"My! ye"re gettin" quite forward-like," she said, with that pleasant giggle of hers.
"High time!" said he, recklessly.
After tea they went west and sat in the park. It was a lovely, hazy evening.
"Wud ye rayther be in a pictur" hoose, Maggie?"
"What"s a pictur" hoose to be compared wi" this? If Heaven"s like this, I"m prepared to dee." With three rose-flavoured jujubes in her mouth, she sighed and nestled against him.
In silence his arm went round her waist.
While waiting for the car back to camp he wrote on a picture postcard--"Cocoanut received with thanks. I wish I was dead,"--and dropped it into a pillar box.
About the same hour, in the billet, Willie was disposing of the cocoa-nut by raffle, tickets one penny each.
"A queer-like present to get frae yer aunt," said some one.
"Ay; but she"s a queer-like aunt," said Willie, pocketing the useful sum of tenpence.
XVII
"FONDEST LOVE FROM MAGGIE"
Morning brought no letter from Christina, but at breakfast time Macgregor received the astounding intimation that he was granted three days" leave, the same to commence with the very next hour.
"What"s the guid o" leave wi" a jaw like this?" wailed the lop-sided William who, with several other members of the billet, had been included in the dispensation.
"I"ll tell ye what it means, onyway," said Lance-corporal Jake; "it means that we"ll be gettin" a move on afore we"re mony days aulder."
Macgregor did not enter into any of the discussions which followed.
Having hurriedly made himself as smart as possible, he took car for Glasgow, and there caught the ten o"clock train for Aberdeen. He spent the ensuing four hours in wondering--not so much what he should say to Christina as what she would say to him. For himself, he was determined to make a clean breast of it; at the same time, he was not going to absolve Christina of all responsibility. He had behaved like a fool, he admitted, but he still had a just grievance. Yet it was with no very stout heart that he alighted in the big station, where everything was strange except the colour of khaki, and found his way to the quiet hotel where his friends had rooms.
And there on the steps was Uncle Purdie sunning himself and smoking a richly-banded cigar--by order of his spouse.
"Preserve us!" exclaimed Uncle Purdie in sheer astonishment at the sight of his nephew. "Preserve us!" he repeated in quite another tone--that of concern. "But I"m rael glad to see ye, lad," he went on somewhat uneasily, "an" yer aunt"ll be unco pleased. Come awa"
in, come awa" in! Ye"ve gotten a bit leave, I preshume. An" ye"ll be needin" yer denner--eh? But we"ll sune see to that. "Mphm!
Ay! Jist so! Eh--I suppose ye hadna time to write or wire--but what"s the odds? Ye"re welcome, Macgreegor, rael welcome."
"Jist got leave this mornin"--three days," Macgregor explained, not a little relieved to have found his uncle alone to begin with.
"So I catched the first train I could."
"Jist that, exactly so," said Mr. Purdie with a heavy sigh that seemed irrelevant. "Weel, ma lad," he resumed hurriedly, "if ye tak" a sate here, I"ll awa" up the stair an" get yer aunt. She generally has a bit snooze aboot this time--efter her meal, ye ken--but----"
"Dinna fash her aboot me, Uncle Purdie."
"Oh, but it--it"s necessary to get her doon here. She"ll maybe be able to break--I meant for to say----" Mr. Purdie stopped short and wiped perspiration from his face.
"Jist a meenute," he said abruptly, and bolted upstairs.
Macgregor gazed after the retreating burly figure. Never before had he seen his uncle nervous. Was Aunt Purdie not so well? It was news to hear of her napping in the middle of the day. Then a likelier explanation dawned on Macgregor, and he smiled to himself.
Uncle Purdie had been too shy to mention it, and now he had retired simply to allow of Christina"s coming down by herself. So Macgregor prepared to meet his love.
And while he meditated, his aunt and uncle appeared together.
"Yer aunt"ll explain," said Mr. Purdie, looking most unhappy. "I couldna dae it."
"How do you do, Macgregor?" said Aunt Purdie, shaking hands with stiff kindliness. "I am delighted to perceive you in Aberdeen.
But what a deplorable catastrophe!--what a dire calamity!--what an ironical mishap!----"
"She means----" began Mr. Purdie, noting his nephew"s puzzled distress.
"Hush, Robert! Allow me. I must break it gently to the boy. What a cruel fiascio!--what a vexatious disappintment!----"
"Whaur"s Christina?" Macgregor demanded.
"Courage, boy!" said Aunt Purdie in lofty tones. "Remember you are a sojer--soldier--of the Queen--or rather, King!"
"But----"
"Christina left for Glasgow per the 1.10 p.m. train, one short hour before you arrived."
"Weel, I"m----"
"She decided very suddenly this morning. She did not hand me the letter, or p.c., for my perusual, but I understood her to observe that Miss Tod was not feeling so able and desired her presence. We were real sorry to let her go----"
"Ma impression," Mr. Purdie put in, "is that she was wearyin" for her lad. But for ill-luck this is the maist confounded, dampest----"
"Robert, behave yourself!"
"Weel, it"s a fair sickener. But there"s nae use talkin" aboot it.
Come awa", lad, an" ha"e something to eat. Ye canna keep up yer heart on a toom kyte."
They were very kind to him and pressed him to remain overnight, but he was bent on leaving by the 3.40 express, which is due at Glasgow about 7.30. With good luck, he told himself, he might catch Christina at Miss Tod"s. Meanwhile youth and health compelled him to enjoy his dinner, during which Aunt Purdie insisted on refunding the cost of his futile journey.
"Ye"re ower guid to me," he said awkwardly.
"Not at all, not at all, Macgregor. It is quite unmentionable,"
she returned with a majestic wave. "Robert, give Macgregor some of your choice cigars."
In the train he smoked one of them, but finding it a trifle heady, preserved the rest for presentation to his sergeant, whom he greatly admired.